A derivative of glucose found throughout the natural world, Chitin (C8H13O5N)n, nature's second most abundant compound next to cellulose, is naturally found as a polysaccharide or long-chain polymer composed of repeating monomeric units of N-acetylglucosamine in beta-1,4 linkage.

Chitin is a non-toxic, biocompatible and biodegradable polymer that serves a structural function and contributes strength to those structures of which it is a component feature. For instance, chitin is a main component found in the shells (exoskeletons) of various animals like crab, lobster, and shrimp (crustaceans); ants, beetles, and butterflies (insects); the beaks of squid and octopi (cephalopods); and the cell walls of fungi, to name a few. Chitin has been used for industrial, medicinal, agricultural, cosmetic, and numerous other purposes providing advantageous characteristics in these various settings.
Chitosan is a deacetylated derivative of chitin that retains the non-toxic, biocompatible and biodegradable characteristics of its parent. Chitosan is a linear polysaccharide composed of repeating β-(1-4)-linked D-glucosamine monomeric units. Chitosan and its derivatives have been widely studied for their potential applications in various fields, such as industry, medicine, biotechnology, cosmetics and agriculture due to their generally acidic characteristics and their readily reactive nature.
Nanotechnology is the name most often associated with the field of applied science and technology that aims to control matter on the atomic and molecular scale. Thus, typical size ranges for the components being worked with and “devices” being constructed range from 1 to 100 nanometers. The “devices” may be anything from mechanical, to chemical, to biological constructs. Nano-robots that can perform tasks through physical movement and manipulation of their surrounding environment and nano-therapeutics that are synthesized within biomaterial constructs to provide biologically active molecular components/active moieties and thus provide chemical/biological interaction with their surrounding environment are just a couple of the numerous and varied examples of the current application of nanotechnology. Today many such “nano-constructs” are known and being employed in numerous fields to accomplish various tasks.
Vesicles are hollow spherical structures, that may be nano-scale in size, formed by the self-assembly of surfactants, lipids, or block copolymers in aqueous solution. They have long been a scientific curiosity because of their structural resemblance to primitive biological cells. More importantly, vesicles are of technological interest for application ranging from drug delivery and controlled release to bioseparations and sensing. Many of these applications rely upon the ability of vesicles to entrap desired chemicals (i.e., functionalization) in their interior and thereafter release these chemicals to the external medium in a controlled manner. Thus, vesicles, (e.g. liposomes, in the case of lipids being the substituent molecules), as defined by their membrane structures, play many roles in the world of chemical and organic reactions.
Currently, the use of various biopolymer backbones, such as chitosan lattices/networks or other polysaccharide/polypeptide networks, in combination with functionalized vesicle/liposomes are known to be useful bioactive complexes for numerous applications which may be contained/loaded in vesicle/liposome structures. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide novel bioactive complexes that were able to promote increased ease of these bioactive complexes formation and increased functionality of such complexes.